Resistant, Flexible, Diverse: Revaluing Rare Farm Animal Breeds As Countryside Capital

Abstract

This article explores the past, present, and potential contributions of rare and indigenous farm animal breeds to countryside capital, a concept emerging in discussions of rural tourism. Older breeds of farm animals, evolving with human societies and adapting to a broad range of climatic and landscape conditions, have played multiple essential roles in the development of communities throughout the world and continue to offer vital products and services to societies living in marginal areas of the planet today. As such, older farm animal breeds embody unique genetic traits and rich cultural heritage of actual and future value to rural communities seeking to adapt and diversify, often into tourism, in today‘s climate of uncertainty. Potential contributions of heritage farm animals are discussed in relation to agrotourism and last-chance tourism, with a focus on the Newfoundland pony and Canadienne cow, two of Canada‘s indigenous and rare farm animal breeds. Keywords: rural geography, animal geographies, indigenous breeds, agrotourism, last-chance tourism